Description
The main novelty of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the entry of robots and Artificial Intelligence into the production process. This phenomenon could potentially generate high levels of unemployment, or even full unemployment, and therefore calls for innovative public policies.
This book adopts an agnostic position on the size of the future impact of technological progress on employment but proposes a thought experiment built on a full unemployment scenario, which focuses on the consequences that these policies might have for people’s well-being, with particular reference to the provision of a universal Basic Income (UBI). Relying on some of the principles and models of Behavioral and Happiness Economics, it is argued that implementing a UBI that does not change over time may increase well-being inequality. A policy mix that combines a rising basic income with other measures is therefore recommended.
This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on economic policy, labor economics, the economics of well-being and happiness, and behavioral economics.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. THREE WAVES OF TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT
1.1 The First Wave and the theory of compensation
1.2 The Second Wave and the rise of inequality
1.3 The Third Wave and the great decoupling
1.4 Is full unemployment a concrete possibility?
1.5 What will happen in the meantime? The road to full-unemployment equilibrium
CHAPTER 2. POSSIBLE POLICY SOLUTIONS TO COUNTERACT THE RISE OF TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
2.1 Taxing robots, subsidizing human workers
2.2 Boosting education and/or professional training
2.3 Reducing per-capita working hours
2.4 Quotas…
2.5 …and the tradable permits approach
2.6 Employment Protection Legislation and Unemployment Benefits
2.7 Collectivizing firms (or similar policies)
2.8 Universal or Unconditional Basic Income
CHAPTER 3. BASIC INCOME
3.1 Basic Income and its history
3.2 Basic Income as a welfare instrument
3.3 Basic income and labor supply
3.4 Basic Income as an instrument for counteracting technological unemployment
3.5 Creative work, prosocial behavior and Basic Income
3.6 Is Basic Income financially sustainable?
CHAPTER 4. WELLBEING AND BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS
4.1 Behavioral Economics and Happiness Economics
4.2 Wellbeing and its causes
4.3 Behavioral Economics and theoretical tools to measure the impact of Basic Income on wellbeing
4.4 The dynamics of wellbeing over time
CHAPTER 5. THE WELLBEING IMPACT OF AN UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME
5.1 Measuring the impact of technological unemployment on wellbeing
5.2 Measuring the impact of redistributive policies on wellbeing: the wellbeing impossibility theorem
5.3 The impact of Basic Income on wellbeing
5.4 Comparing Basic Income with conventional policy tools
5.5 Does Basic Income reduce wellbeing?
CHAPTER 6. CONCLUDING REMARKS: AN ALTERNATIVE / COMPLEMENTARY POLICY PROPOSAL
6.1 Summing up: technological unemployment, Basic Income and wellbeing
6.2 Would a higher (and rising) Basic Income be the best solution?
6.3 An alternative/complementary policy proposal
6.4 Final considerations: employment or income?
